Symposium and exhibition “Oslofjord Ecologies” will take place from 12th to 20th of August at the RAM gallery in Oslo, where Latvian artists Rasa Šmite and Raitis Šmits participate alongside with artists from the Nordic countries.

“Oslofjord Ecologies” is an art and research project, focusing on climate, environmental and social changes in the Nordic and Baltic region. This project combines contemporary art approach with technologies, biology, pedagogy and the cultural and historical heritage, in order to create and display innovative artworks that aspire to offer new experiences in a performative manner. Next to works of Norwegian artists, which track environmental changes in Oslo city fjords since the first oil station was built in the 1960s, “Biotricity” is displayed - “green energy” project by Šmitses’ which experiments with producing bacteria electricity in various wetland areas such as ponds, swamps and seacoasts. This week during the symposium “Oslofjord Ecologies” Latvian artists acquaint themselves with the history and biology of Oslo fjords, as well as carry out field studies, storing up mud samples, video and data, which will be used in upcoming artworks; first drafts and works with audiovisual experiences from Oslo fjord “green energy” will be presented already at the opening of the exhibition on 12th of August. “Bacteria battery”, which generates electricity in real time and converts it into real-time sound and image structures will be displayed at the exhibition from 12th to 20th of August. Visitors at the Oslo exhibition will have the opportunity to see data visualizations and time-lapse video from “bacteria batteries” experiments in nature both in Latvia and the Netherlands, as well as see the latest visualizations by Šmitses’ in virtual reality from experiments in swamps of Latvia and fjords of Norway.

In addition to the exhibition there will also be a symposium programme, performances and creative workshops open to the general public and offered to students and young people in educational establishments as the exhibition goes on.

The Symposium and Šmitses’ residences in Oslo are supported by Nordic Culture Point and Ministry of Culture of Latvia. The exhibition is carried out in the framework of cooperation project “Renewable Futures” lead by RIXC “Creative Europe” and in the framework of project “Hybrid Lab” by the fund “Nordplus” of Nordic countries. Academic partners of the project are Liepaja University, Aalto University, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences.